Research the modern culture of wellness and self-care by looking through lifestyle
websites, such as Paltrow’s Goop (which evolved from a newsletter in 2008 to a
conglomerate worth two hundred and fifty million dollars), lifestyle gurus’ Instagram and
podcasts, such as “The Sakara Life podcast” and others. What does the term “wellness”
stand for? What does it encompass? What does it exclude? Choose one company’s
products, or a website, and describe consumers of this type of products. How can they be
characterized? What social class do they belong to? Explore their goals and evaluate real
value of their products through the course’s readings, such as Featherstone, Bourdieu,
Hearn, Banet-Weiser and Lury. Evaluate how much customized lifestyle contributes to
quality of life (if it does), and how much it constitutes pressure and social demand for
“wellness” and self-improvement that can be detrimental to one’s individual development.
Conclude by responding to the questions: Why has wellness become so central in our
consumer culture?
Selected sites to explore (but not limited to):
https://goop.com/
https://moonjuice.com/
https://www.sakara.com/pages/podcast
Additional readings:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/29/puzzling-through-our-eternal-quest-forwellness
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/magazine/how-amanda-chantal-bacon-perfectedthe-celebrity-wellness-business.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/magazine/big-business-gwyneth-paltrowwellness.html
EXAMPLE ESSAY BELOW ( she is using different examples, brands & companies to
make her argument)
The Ethics of Wellness and Self-Care
( Presentation alongside this essay)
The Global Wellness institute defines wellness as ‘the active pursuit of activities,
choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health’ (Global Wellness Institute). They
also categorize the term wellness into six dimensions: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual,
social and environmental. Famous actress Gweneth Paltrow created her brand Goop to target
all six of these elements. Very quickly wellness brands like Goop realized that this “wellness
lifestyle” was highly consumable and that people would pay a lot of money in order to feel as
though they were living their healthiest and happiest form of self possible. This ultimately
coined the term “radical wellness” (Brodesser) as more and more people felt that if they
abstained from buying into this lifestyle, they would eventually get left behind within society.
This paper examines wellness brands like Goop in order to understand why wellness culture
has become so central within our consumer society.
Paltrow began her wellness brand in 2008 as she started sending out a weekly online
newsletter with different recipes and clothing choices that she thought her readers would be
interested in. The actress realized very quickly that there was a gap in the market for a brand
that not only touched the six attributes of wellness, but also could be a leader within the
wellness community. Goop’s chief content office, Elise Loehnen, argues that wellness is not
‘just about a spa you’re going to or a cleanse you’ve started or a diet you’re on. It’s how local
your food is. […] It’s the water you drink. It’s the cure you never thought possible. It’s the level
of well-being you didn’t even know to ask for’ (Brodesser). Paltrow understood that her
consumers felt that they were never ‘able to be her’ (Brodesser), a seemingly healthy and
successful woman, so she created a brand that made her customers feel that they could be the
latter if they bought her products. Goop is selling perfection to their customers as they strive to
remain an ‘aspirational’ (Brodesser) brand through and through. However, this is when one
begins to notice how the ethics of wellness is completely warped. Wellness has become a
central part of consumer culture because brands like Goop make us believe, through detailed
marketing efforts, that perfection is accessible if we buy into these products. Since the brand
launched, Goop has released products such as the “GOOPGLOW Morning Skin Superpowder”
which is promoted to leave customers with glowing, ‘goop glow’ (Goop) skin. The powder
contains vitamin C and E, as well as COQ10 which is an ingredient said to support cellular
energy production within mitochondria. Goop also sells a rose quartz water bottle, retailed at
$80, which is said to infuse your drinking water with positive energy. From these products we
can see how this wellness culture has reached the point where even the liquids we put into our
bodies must be “purified” by either a powder supplement or a crystal in order for us to reach
this state of pure health and happiness. I